5 days ago
Green Bay's nearly 150-year-old infrastructure gets failing grade in water report
GREEN BAY, Wis. (WFRV) – Green Bay's water utility earned strong marks on a new statewide report card, but one failing grade is raising concerns.
The Wisconsin Waterworks Excellence Project, created by UW–Madison Professor Manny Teodoro, uses state data to grade all regulated drinking water systems in Wisconsin on a school-style scale.
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The goal: make complex water systems more understandable to the public and policymakers.
'These systems are buried, so they stay figuratively buried,' Teodoro said. 'The idea behind the report card is to make them familiar and easy to relate to.'
Water Quality – Health: A
Finance: B
Communications: A+
Infrastructure and Operations: F
Teodoro says Green Bay's aging infrastructure—some pipes date back to the 1880s—was the main driver of the failing grade.
'Green Bay loses a lot of water,' he said. 'Our Midwestern winters are very tough on water infrastructure… the systems are old in many parts of the city.'
Still, Teodoro called Green Bay Water a 'well-led, professionally operated utility,' adding the city is already taking steps in the right direction.
Utility General Manager Brian Powell agreed the infrastructure needs attention, but said the report card doesn't capture the full picture.
'We have a system that's over 140 years old… and part of our plan is to replace one percent of our infrastructure a year,' Powell said. 'The grading doesn't necessarily capture what we are doing.'
He noted those upgrades were in motion before the report card came out.
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'The report card affirms we need to keep going down that path,' Powell said. 'We're proud of our water quality, finances, and communications.'
The failing grade is tied to infrastructure, not the safety of drinking water, which scored an A.
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